How to Start a Fitness Journey after Motherhood

Are you a mom struggling with trying to figure out how to start a fitness journey after motherhood? We have the best tips to help you get started!

How to Start a Fitness Journey after Motherhood

…Because it is hard trying to start a fitness journey after motherhood and you want to know how to start your fitness journey right.

The world pressures us to lose “the baby weight” as fast as we can. About 50% of us ladies have probably never started a fitness journey. Why? Because we didn’t need to. Then society steps in & all of a sudden after motherhood hits… we are told we are fat. (Which BTW is completely dumb… a living human child just came out of our you-know-wheres). So you’re given outdated information, no time & a newborn baby. That’s where I come in. No matter if you’re reading this 6 weeks, 6 months or even 6 years after baby the foundations of how to start a fitness journey will be 100% applicable.

Beginning Your Fitness Journey

The first step to starting a fitness journey is to be realistic. The weight won’t come off as fast as, or as easily as, it came on. AND realize that’s okay. It’s totally natural for your body to fluctuate weight. You’re human and you had a baby. Being realistic will also give you the certainty that you need when navigating this unknown terrain.

Let’s be realistic about how much weight is SAFE to lose when starting your fitness journey. The answer is about 0.5 lbs to 2 lbs a week. You could see a good amount come off at the beginning of your journey if you are bloated, carrying extra water or experiencing adrenal fatigue. But all things said and done, it’s about 2 lbs a week. That means if you want to lose 10lbs it should take about 5 months. Even though it might seem like FOREVER!!!, trust me – you WANT to achieve weight loss at a slow and steady pace. I work with moms that are going to keep the weight off FOR THE LONG-TERM.

I realize that is NOT the answer you wanted to hear. As a personal trainer & weight loss coach, I can tell you (both personally and as a coach) that perhaps the HARDEST part of any weight loss journey is having PATIENCE.

I know how frustrating it can be when you want to be at your weight loss goal quickly and drop 10 lb like… YESTERDAY.

Make How You Manage Your Time Work for You

The second step is to focus on finding the time. A HUGE myth when starting a fitness journey is it takes a restrictive diet + long hours in the gym. The three key factors I have my clients focus on -especially if they are new to motherhood is nutrition, sleep, and resistance training. Not cardio or HITT workouts. If you don’t have time to workout, the next best thing is changing sleep patterns & food nutrition, which will help so much.

Every day, I help moms start a fitness journey after motherhood & that means helping them find time to workout. Sometimes that means doing a scheduled audit. This is where we journal everything we do for about 72 hours. This helps us get a clear picture of what’s happening in life. Typically, moms get analysis paralysis when it comes to working out. They spend more time looking for a workout than actually working out. Another thing we find is Mom is doing lots of things but not as efficiently as she should. I use calendar or schedule blocking. This helps organize the day for maximum efficiency.

Create Time

Another thing we do is enlist the help of technology and services to aid in our fitness journey by creating time.

What does this mean?

Simple. An example might be that we order groceries online. This saves us time and money because the coupons are amazing. But most importantly, I believe that if you don’t certain have foods in your house that cause you to go binge – it will be much more work to get them. Think: “out of sight, out of mind.” The second way we create time in our day is by grouping tasks together. I have my ladies pick at most two days to run errands or appointment. Why? Because we can spend SO much time going to & from the house, it can be debilitating. Think: “less chicken with your head cut off.”

Start Off Easy

My final step for starting a fitness journey off right is by starting to implement really easy ways to naturally detox your body & start building healthy habits.

In my first week of coaching with ANY new client, I start them off with tracking water intake & drinking a morning tonic. The morning tonic includes 1 tsp of apple cider vinegar, ¼ lemon squeezed, and 8 oz of water. Mixed with honey if you can’t stomach the apple cider vinegar. Another couple really easy habits to start making is adding fiber & probiotics to diet. Fermented foods like Kimchi is a great way to get living probiotics. Another way is to eat organic but I realize that could be a stretch for some families budgets. Being 110% honest it’s more important to eat cleaner meats (meats that are free range, cage free, hormone free, organic, grass fed etc.) than fruits & vegetables.

Starting Your Fitness Journey

To sum up how to start a fitness journey after motherhood focus on small goals, leverage technology and services to find the time and start slow to create long-lasting healthy habits. I realize as I am writing this you might have more questions & be a bit overwhelmed. To make your life easier, just pop over to my website. I have created a Jump Start Fitness Guide that has even more information – for free! As always please make sure you consult your physician before starting a new fitness routine & see a nutritionist for additional nutritional advice.

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Autumn is a wife, mom of two, Certified Online Personal Trainer and weight loss coach. Autumn’s philosophy is fitness should be fun & dynamic, while nutrition should be simple. When she’s not running around the house you can find her on Instagram @getfitbyautumn or at www.getfitbyautumn.com

I love how the focus is on eating healthy and organizing your schedule. What a great focus to clean up your life! I get my exercise walking with the dog around my property, but the nutrition is something that I have always focused on.